The BAA, posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, enables NGA to solicit proposals from both traditional and non-traditional sources for research pertaining to basic and applied research.

“Issuing a BAA allows NGA to explore the best options from a broad group, quickly and at a relatively low cost,” said NGA Research project scientist, Frederick Koehler, Ph.D. “The cost of entry is low, a short white paper detailing their recommended solution, and therefore we expect a broad range of replies to our topic.”

For this latest topic area, NGA seeks innovative proposals for improving image processes used with airborne SAR by expanding the number and type of SAR sensor data that can be encoded within the GEOINT standard.

“As part of its role as the functional manager for geospatial intelligence, NGA works closely with the intelligence community to develop and mature standards for GEOINT data,” said Koehler “These standards can increase compatibility between systems and services, speed up processing and exploitation, as well as reduce costs to the agency and mission partners in executing our critical missions.”

The Sensor Independent Complex Data, or SICD, standard is a product of nearly a decade of collaboration by a community of experts and stakeholders of SAR data. NGAs SICD specification does not currently support complex image data formed using backprojection algorithms. The SICD focuses on processing steps applied to the data, and it is not clear how to include per-pixel processing used in backprojection, which will be solved via the BAA, according to Koehler.

The target award value for contracts will not exceed $430,140. The period of performance shall not exceed 12 months from the date of contract award.

The application period for the fifth topic area is open until May 1 and questions may be submitted through April 14, 2017.